Is the internet good enough in a 3rd world country?
The answer is…
It depends. And the responsibility squarely falls on your shoulders.
But the great news is that it’s 100% possible. There’s currently fast internet in the majority of places in the world. I’ve traveled to places like Guadalajara, Colombia, and New Zealand. Never had a problem.
Before you plan your next trip to whatever city, you should always check to see the speed and bandwidth of the internet.
Ensuring I Always have Good Internet
Step 1: Contact the Host of the AirBnb and Ask for the Speed of the Internet
As mentioned in the article I wrote on Where I Stay, I always check with the Airbnb host the speed of the internet.
I love the Airbnb platform because it gives me the option to send a direct message to hosts before I actually book the place.
And what’s the magic question?
“What is your wifi speed?”
They usually know right away, or they will find out and get back to you. In rare cases, they simply say some bs like “I don’t know, but I do know that people watch Netflix and work from my listing all the time.”
Here’s an example of where the Airbnb host knew right away.
Okay, so Cintia E Jeff said “120mega”. What does that mean? Let’s take a look.
Step 2: Refer to Table of Acceptable Internet Speeds
Header | Download (Mbps) | Upload (Mbps) | MB or MBps | Mb or Mbps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Poor | <8 | <1.5 | <40 | <5 |
Average | 15 | 3 | 80 | 10 |
Good | 25 | 5 | 120 | 15 |
Great | 32 | 7+ | 160+ | 20+ |
So when Cintia E Jeff said “120mega”, she meant MBps. Which puts us in the “Good” category, and I’d be comfortable enough sharing my screen, presenting powerpoint slides to an audience of 50 people. (Yes, speaking from actual experience. Hehe.)
By the way, MB = Megabytes and Mb = Megabits. I know, potayto, potahto. (Except… not.)
Step 3: Determine Internet Bandwidth Needed
I’m a consultant. I talk to internal and external customers 4+ hours a day. The “Good” category above is what I need to perform my job and to do my job well.
However, a profession that arguably can afford to lower wifi speed standards is a software engineer. Again – it’s not a must-have, but more of a nice-to-have to have fast internet. The reason I say that is because repeated internet failure, although very frustrating, would not impact someone’s job as much as somebody who requires consistent conversations via Zoom.
Professional gamers that require an enormous amount of internet bandwidth would need to find internet speeds much greater than the speeds listed in the table above.
Feel free to determine your own requirements for your specific profession. For me, I book through Airbnb, send a DM to the hosts, and ask directly for the internet speeds before I book.
I hope this helped – let me know if you agree/disagree with this article!
